Tales of Symphonia - My Recent Addiction

Totally worth your 25 bucks

I mentioned a while back that I've been playing Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube. If you've played any of the Tales games, then you know essentially what you're in for. The Tales series is an RPG franchise published by Namco Bandai, and is usually developed by their subsidiary studio "Namco Tales Studio." The first in the series was Tales of Phantasia, and now has a whopping 14 games in their main series, with plenty of spin-offs in various other genres. Like Final Fantasy, the games of the main series usually have little to do with one another, with the exception of some appearances from characters from other games, as well as direct sequels - like Tales of Xillia 2.

We filthy American pig-dogs only have 8 games from the main series localized for us, with Tales of Xillia on the way for us sometime in 2013 (hopefully!) The Tales series is very popular - almost to a Final Fantasy level - in Japan, where as stateside it's more of a cult classic - as many people I've spoken to aren't even really familiar with the series, with the exception of Joey G, who is the only person in the state of New Jersey that I'm aware of that has even played or owned any of the Tales games. As of May 2011, the series as a whole has sold an impressive 13 million units worldwide. Not too shabby for a cult RPG.

Tales of Symphonia is the fifth core game in the Tales series, and was released in America in July of 2004. Like other Tales games, it utilizes the Linear Motion Battle System - but uses a variant called the Multi-Line Linear Motion Battle System - which means that the battles are still side scrollers, but allow for more three dimensional movement, across various "lines" - hence the name. The battle system is smooth and rewarding - ripping out 35 hit combos is fantastic, and the "Unity" attack allows all characters in the party to use offensive techniques in succession. You can use certain combinations to make special attacks that result in additional damage.

The battles reward the player with item drops, experience, and a separate type of "currency" if you will called "Grade." Grade is based on very specific criteria from each battle, such as proper defending, damage dealt, highest combo, how quickly you dispatched the enemies, and if any of your party members died during the battle. Grade can be used to purchase EXGems of various levels, but more importantly, is used to purchase bonuses for New Game Plus - such as keeping character stats and techs, allowing you to hold more of each item in your backpack, keeping your items, etc. It provides an interesting incentive to make sure you're handling each battle as effectively as possible, and acts as a motivation to learn the controls well and use good strategies when fighting bosses.

The cooking system is an interesting concept as well, after each battle, the player can choose to cook a specific meal which has benefits that vary from other meals - some heal HP, others recover TP, some recover both, and some even remove status ailments. Cooking requires that you have the raw materials, which can be either found, or bought from one of the many shops throughout Sylvarant and Tethe'alla.

I mentioned the EX-Gems above - these allow your characters to have Ex Skills when proper Ex Gems are combined, and also determine which type of skills the character will learn (either Strike or Technical.) Characters can also unlock titles, which grant bonuses to certain traits. Titles can be unlocked either by leveling up or by certain criteria (for example, one character, Colette, can unlock the title "Dog Lover" by having her as your party leader and naming EVERY DOG IN THE GAME.)

So far, I'm loving this game completely. The storyline isn't anything to write home about - it's very run-of-the-mill in the sense that it's "Unknowing child becomes hero, goes on huge adventure, saves world(s), learns that friendship is awesome and can overcome any obstacle" - in other words, the story is very Saturday-cartoonish, but it's good enough to at least keep me enthralled story wise. It's not too original, but it's good enough for me. The gameplay on the other hand is completely phenomenal. The battle controls are easy to learn and smoothe, plus you have the ability to map abilities to whichever button/combination you want - for example, you can have skills that are level 1, 2, 3, and 4 mapped to B, Up and B, Left and B, Down and B respectively, so that it's easy for you to make a nice skill chain. You can also map skills to C Up and C Down on the C stick - I use these for my crowd control abilities, and C Down for the Guarding Ability (not just the standard guard), so the battles move very smooth and I feel like I have complete control over what's happening. The party AI is pretty damn good - they know when to heal, and depending on what orders you give them (i.e., you can make them stay far away and use long range magic, or get up in the enemies' face and rip them to shreds), you can make sure your healers keep their distance, and your melee characters are doing work.

So far, I'm level 43 with just about everyone, I'm able to handle almost all enemies and bosses with no problems whatsoever, and it's very satisfying. You won't have to grind often in this game, as the story progression usually keeps you fairly leveled for upcoming story segments, but I did choose to grind a few levels out at various areas of the game, because that's just how I like to play my RPG's :P

Zelos secretly wants to bang EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

I haven't quite made it to disc 2 yet (yes, 2 discs for a GameCube game, it's nuts!), but I'm very close to getting to the end of the game. I have about 8 main story quests, and a nice heaping handful of sidequests, so I'm sure I've still got a good 10 hours left of gameplay, but so far I'm completely satisfied. The voice acting can be kind of gooby and daytime soap-ish, but for the most part it's solid, and there are lots of little character interactions that come up on the screen that you trigger by pressing "Z," where certain characters will talk about things relevant to where you're at currently in the story. There's no voice for these segments, and they play out with comic style panels for each character. These can be pretty humerous, especially once you get Zelos in your party, as he's a complete womanizing man-whore, and it's hysterical.

The music is okay, I don't see myself going out and buying the soundtrack anytime soon, but it's passable for an RPG, and keeps the different areas interesting. The visuals are gorgeous for the GameCube - smooth animations, quick load times and transitions, the animations are awesome, and so far I've gotten nothing but a steady 60 frames per second, no matter how demanding the scenes may be. All of this tied in with a flawless battle system make it very worthy of your $25.

Overall, I'd give the game an 8/10. Pros:

-The visuals are flawless, bright, and colorful.

-The frame rate is consistent and perfect.

-The battle system is quick, fun, and intuitive.

-There is TONS to do in this game, many side quests, and plenty of main quests.

Cons:

-Fairly generic storyline

-Voice acting (specifically, the script, not even the voices) can be a little gooby at times, but I wouldn't consider this a full "con" - more of just a "meh."

As you can see, the only real drawback here is that the story isn't anything special, but it's enough to be cohesive, and have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end, with a clearly defined and explained conclusion as well. The one thing I forgot to mention that story does well is convey the goals of each character, and the problem that the party has to deal with at any given moment. One of the most important thing the game does is have essentially a quest "diary" that tells you what the party must do next, as well as show you where on the map you should go - this prevents any confusion as to where you have to go or who you have to talk to, which really comes in handy after doing a shit ton of sidequests. No scrambling around searching the entire map for where you have to go next!

I highly recommend it if you have a GameCube, and you can find it for $20-$25, which isn't too bad for a solid 40 hours of gameplay, as well as the New Game Plus for even more gameplay time. If you don't have a GameCube, well, I've seen them for as low as $15 shipped on eBay, and local game stores usually have them for around $20, so if you have a Play N Trade or a retro game store near you, you can easily pick on up on the cheap, so take a look around, and definitely check out Tales of Symphonia if you can!

Tales Series

I love the Tales series (the ones I've played). I wish more people knew about these games. The stories are usually not the best, but they are solid JRPG's. I own three Tales games, Tales of Symphonia for the GC and its sequel on the Wii, and Tales of Vesperia on the XBOX 360. I'm waiting for the Xilia localization, and I'm hoping to get the Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS before it becomes hard to find (same thing with Tales of Graces)

Exactly!

You can't expect the Coen brothers to write the storylines for a JRPG, but they're solid, enjoyable games. Joey G picked up Tales of Destiny a while back - and it's refreshing to see what looks like a vibrant SNES-era RPG merged with pseudo 3d elements and the side scrolling battle system. I think the Tales series went unnoticed in the US because it was already a longshot that stateside gamers would pick up the Final Fantasy games, so it's very much a niche genre over here. Strangely enough, I really don't like western RPG's for the most part, with very few exceptions.

Tales

Good to hear this game is fun. I have two Tales games: the one you talk about, and Tales of Phantasia for GBA. I played a little of the GBA game and didn't quite get how to do those side scrolling real time battles; I died a lot in other words. I want to pick up Vesperia on 360 and try that one sometime soon.

Nice!

Yeah if you have Symphonia, definitely try it out - the battles are a lot easier to understand, and the learning curve is nice and easy. I too am looking to get Vesperia for the 360 - once I get it, you can guarantee I'll have a write up on it here :P

You've got a little gold mine there

Tales of Destiny can fetch a pretty penny depending on its condition, 80-120 bucks, black label complete in good condition can fetch for the latter - but I'd highly recommend you hold onto it, because those rare games are rare for a reason, and you don't want to do what I did - trade in all your classic games (I was young and stupid, I wish I could travel back in time and slap myself lol) and then get a wild nostalgic hair up your ass and start molesting your bank account every week haha!

You won't find the PS2 version

True :(

themoth is correct - we never got the PS2 version of Symphonia - it featured extended content too damn it! But if you can snag a gamecube for 20 bucks, then you too can enjoy this wonderful little jRPG.

Ostrander has Tales of Destiny too, so he is the third person in NJ haha

Great game, i never beat it, but then again i have way too many games to beat. Gameplay is champ, the voice acting does get on my nerves though, but its to be expected. Speaking of which, i still have to beat Tales of Destiny, i wish i had my childhood save back, that would make life easier haha.

I love Tales games

It is now my favorite franchise. They are always fun and the characters are all, for the most part, very likable. The stories at generic, but the characters make up for it. I even like the sequel to ToS (though I am the only one). I look forward too Xilia. If you like this one, you should give Legendia and Abyss a shot. Even though Luke is a douchebag, Abyss is great.

Definitely

It's nice to see someone so enthusiastic about the franchise! I've only ever played Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny 2, and Tales of Symphonia, with bits and pieces of other Tales games - I definitely want to get a PS2 and snag Legendia, and I'm waiting for the localization of Xillia. Abyss sounds awesome - I don't mind douchey characters haha!

....

...Tales of Symphonia is a great game. I think it's my favorite third-party Gamecube game. It was the first Tales game I ever played.

Since then, I've played every Tales game that's come to the US except Legendia. My most recent acquisition from the series was Tales of (Eternia) Destiny II on PS1. The series has become my favorite RPG series other than Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest.

That's awesome!

Sweet

I picked this up back in 05 - 06 when I was still in college on the recommendation of a fellow RPG-loving roommate, and proceeded to never play it. This blog is all the reason I need to dive in; thanks!